“No, I’m not implacable. Paul is really right: I mustn’t talk like that. I blurt out the first thing that comes into my head. Is Brauws angry, do you think?”
“With you? No.”
“I say, Uncle, do you think it’s the least use, always thinking about that improvement of social conditions? Why not, all of us, do good where we can and, for the rest, try and be happy ourselves? That’s the great thing.”
Van der Welcke laughed:
“What an easy solution, Marianne!”
“Tell me, Uncle: do you do a lot of good?”
“No.”
“Are you happy?”
“Sometimes....”
“Not always.... I don’t do any good either, or not much. I am happy ... sometimes. You see, I don’t go very far, even according to my own superficial creed. Uncle, are we very insignificant, should you say?”